


Perfect Mess

by MaevesChild



Category: The Outer Worlds (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol, Companionable Snark, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Oral Sex, Outer Worlds Spoilers, Profanity, Romance, Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2021-01-08 03:13:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21228839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaevesChild/pseuds/MaevesChild
Summary: “The world is perfect. It’s a mess. It has always been a mess. We are not going to change it. Our job is to straighten out our own lives.” ~Joseph Campbell





	1. Toast

“So what should we toast to?” Artificial purple vodka sloshed up to the rim of the glass but didn’t escape as Ryn slid it across the table from one hand to the other.

Colonist Ryn. Ryn who overslept by seventy years and had the terminal bedhead of messy curls to prove it. Ryn who used that sparkle in her eye and a dash of freckles to get people to trust her. Never mind it was by accident; she made herself useful to the corporations back on Earth. It's how she got her spot.

Ryn-who-didn’t-really-know-who-she-was-anymore.

_ Captain Ryn, _she amended. That’s who she was now. She got The Unreliable fair and square after crushing the previous captain under her escape pod like a witch with a house. Had to work with the circumstances.

Vicar Max sat across from her. His sandy, greying hair was perfectly in place. He was wearing his clean blue vestments even though that wasn’t who he was anymore. Old habits. Stars, was he even still a Vicar? Did it matter?

“We should toast to switching to water,” he said. His elbows were on the table and his pale brown eyes looked pretty bleary.

Pretty _ pretty _ too, but Ryn was getting side-tracked.

“Come on, one more,” she countered. “Then water. Caffenoids. Definitely sleep. But first, toast.”

Max chuckled. “Toast sounds great.”

“Not bread!” Ryn raised her free hand, but it felt real heavy so she set it on the table again. “I never get to do this.” She turned her head and shouted down the empty hall of the ship. “Bunch of cowards all went to bed early, one night I can actually drink. Even you Nyoka?” She stuck her tongue out at the closed doors and silent response. When she turned her head back to look at Max the mess hall wobbled a little. “I thought I forgot how to have fun. Somehow I got all broken in cryosleep. But here I am!” She half raised her glass and started to take a drink before stopping herself. “Gotta make a good toast to mark the occasion.” She hiccuped. “Maybe bread afterwards.”

Her brain hiccuped too. Instead of saying something, Ryn got distracted again. This time it was by the Fibonacci spiral she made Max draw on the back of an advert poster after she finally admitted she didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about. She recognized it once she saw it, but didn’t know what it was called. She liked it. Made sense why he did too. Looked like a snail shell or the stars in a galaxy, spinning out from a black hole in the center. Her finger traced from the center of the spiral outwards. If she didn’t try too hard, her hand didn’t shake much.

“I used to think the spiral and the golden ratio were a sign of the Grand Plan in action,” Max said. He put his hand on the paper too and started tracing the spiral from the wide end in. “But turns out that the ones in nature don’t actually follow the equation we use to draw it. It’s close, but the angles follow their own chaotic plan.”

Their fingers met in the middle of the spiral.

“Is it still working?” she asked, looking up at him but not moving her hand. “All that drug trip stuff?”

Max was smiling when he looked up. “It is. Not the way I expected to find what I was looking for, but in retrospect it was the kick in the ass I needed.”

Ryn frowned. “So everything is...good now? You don’t feel any of the bad shit anymore?”

“Oh, not at all,” he said. “I still feel everything; I just don’t feel like I’m a failure for feeling it.”

Ryn blinked. “So you still feel good even when you don’t? Like you look all peaceful but you still feel angry and sad, or horny?” She felt a vague twang of anxiety off in the distance.

“Absolutely. And I wouldn’t say _ good _ all the time. I'm at peace with who I am and with the world. It’s perfect. It’s a disaster. That doesn’t mean I won’t stop trying to help people.”

“I wish I felt that.” Ryn sighed. “I mean, I was there and that whole thing makes sense but all that angry, sad, horny busts in and I can’t think about being _ at peace _. I just want it to stop.”

Max frowned and moved his hand but only to lay it on top of hers. “I know it looked like it happened in one moment, but I’ve been working towards this my whole life. I went astray a lot more times than I went the right way.”

“But _ Max _ ,” she said. Her words sounded swishy. “What do you do? I'm scared and angry and sad and horny _ all the time _.”

“You ask for help,” he said and smiled at her again. He squeezed her hand. “Remember when you talked me out of beating Chaney into paste? Like that.”

“Okay, but what about-” She looked down at the table, feeling the edge of sobriety as long as she didn’t move her head. “Sad and scared?”

“Same thing. If you ever feel sad or scared and I can help, I will always be there for you.” He paused as if he was waiting for her to continue. He was a good listener. He wasn’t going to like where her brain was going next.

She looked up at him. Her face was hot. It felt like her ears were the color of strawberries at the very least. Ryn knew she should quit while she was ahead.

Max was still looking at her. At first he seemed concerned and all vicar-like, but it was pretty clear he could read her expression now. She was also positive he was capable of recalling the contents of a list, even if he was sauced.

His lips were quirked up at the corner.

“Go ahead, Ryn, get it out of your system.”

Words felt like a jumble in her mouth. “Be there for me, huh?” she managed. “For all my feelings?”

He looked amused but also maybe a little flustered. Wasn’t every day someone asked their Vicar for a tumble. Ass to the void, was that what she was doing here?

“What about right now? What if I said-”

He cut her off. “Right now, you’re too drunk. And I am too drunk.” Max looked like he wanted to say something serious and it was freaking her out.

Did she fuck up everything again? Same as she fucked up her life and ended up having to run away to the colony in the first place?

“Listen,” he said. “You sober up and ask again? Well, I’d be a damn liar if I said I hadn’t thought about it.”

Ryn blinked at him. “Wait. Did you?”

“Unless you’re-”

“No, I-” The mutual word stumbling was a better outcome than she expected. Ryn smiled. “I came up with a toast.”

“Oh?”

She lifted her glass, trying to keep it as still as she could and waited for him to do the same.

“To sobriety and having the courage to ask for help.”

Ryn slammed the rest of what was in her glass, not daring to even look at Max. What in the actual fuck was she doing? She knew that religion had left behind that weird sex prudishness in the past, but still, wasn’t it breaking some kind of natural law to want to get in his pants?

And boy, did she ever.

The vodka burned all the way down. She tried to put the glass back down, but she missed and set it on the corner of its base and it tumbled over. The glass rolled across the table and bumped into Max’s glass, which was still half full.

Come to think of it, had she actually refilled his glass again after that second one? She was on at least four.

“Whoa,” she muttered. “I think I need to put my head down for a sec.”

Ryn cradled her head on her arm and the table lurched alarmingly.

“Shit,” she said. She didn’t lift her head up. “Max, did the ship take off?”

“We’re still firmly on the landing pad.”

“Why is everything moving then? Wow, _ fuck _.”

Her eyes slid closed, but she could hear Max getting up. Probably going to stumble off to bed, leaving her here to wallow in her bad choices. But instead of the echo of his disappearing footsteps, she heard his voice, soft and close by.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you now too.”

* * *

Ryn opened her eyes and found herself curled on her side in her bunk. She was still dressed but someone had carefully taken off her boots and set them next to the bed. Next to her boots was a bottle of water and a package of Caffenoids. With a groan, she grabbed them popped a pill in her mouth, chasing it with a swig of water.

The pills took effect almost immediately. Synthesized caffeine and pain killers hit her blood stream before she even managed to sit up. Did nothing for the foul taste in her mouth. She tried to remember what the fuck happened to her last night.

A few flashes of memory, here and there. Definitely remembered hanging her head in the toilet and losing those last glasses of vodka in a violent way. Maybe a warm hand rubbing her back when it happened? She couldn’t be sure.

It seemed like a dream, but she had the distinct image of Max there with her, leaning up against her desk, watching her sleep to make sure she was okay. It was the sort of thing he would do. Any good spiritual person would do the same, really. Right?

She couldn’t tell if that part was real or wishful thinking.

_ Holy shit_. Had she propositioned him last night?

Would it be possible to have ADA launch the ship so Ryn could throw herself out the airlock?

She put her head into her hands. It was better if she didn’t think at all. They had to go into Byzantium proper today and that was enough of a problem. She preferred mantiswarms to bureaucrats any day. This was not the best time to be worrying about if she made an ass out of herself. 

The one perk was that if she had completely bared her ass, figuratively or literally, and it put Max off, she didn’t have to worry about the sexual frustration. She could move right into self loathing. She was especially good at that.

She could hear people moving around in the mess hall up the stairs; dishes clanking, muffled voices. The scent of coffee, or what passed as coffee here in the colony, wafted in. Coffee was a great idea. She was going to have to face Max sometime and the rest of the crew being there would help it not be so awkward. That was assuming he didn’t bail out in the middle of the night to get away from her.

Ryn swung her feet out of the bunk. She intended to stuff them into her boots, but someone had carefully folded the laces inside. _ Fuck. _ That was the most _ Max _ thing she’d ever seen. It had to have been him. She didn’t have the heart to pull the laces out so she decided to brave the mess hall barefoot.

She kept her eyes on the floor until she was almost through the door except to glance into Max’s room to see he wasn't there. Ryn pulled her shoulders back and tried to fake it as best she could. No one would notice she felt like plasma-burned shit.

“Morning, assholes,” she muttered as she came in. 

Nyoka looked up from her coffee. “Damn Cap, you look like you got put away wet.”

“_Awesome _.” So they noticed a little.

Felix and Parvati were at the table eating and Ellie was sitting in the corner, her feet swung up on the countertop. And there was Max with his back to her, fiddling with something on the counter in front of him. He was wearing half his armor, assuming and rightly so, that she’d want him to join her again today. She really was predictable.

“Ms. Ramnarim-Wentworth, please give our Captain a break. She stayed awake to listen to me ramble on, long after you all went to bed.”

“I’d look like the ass-end of the void too if I had to listen to you go on all night, that’s for sure.” Ryn couldn’t tell if Nyoka was serious or not when she gave Max shit.

“Then you’ll have to forgive her for looking a bit disheveled.”

“That’s a word for it,” Ryn mumbled. 

Max turned around at the sound of her voice and held out a plate. He was smiling in a completely nondescript sort of way. He looked like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. 

But there was a sparkle in his eyes as he offered Ryn the plate.

“Toast?”


	2. Golden Ratio

The worst part of Byzantium was the smell. The city didn’t smell like much of anything -- concrete, welded metal and the occasional whiff of expensive cologne. It was more how they smelled in comparison. SAM was good, but even he couldn’t get the smell of sulfur out of their armor. Ryn knew they stood out like a flashlight in the dark.

Yet somehow they managed to sneak into HHC and back out again without getting killed. It was a winter solstice miracle.

Wait. Did any of these weird planets have a solstice?

She never should have left Earth.

Of course, if she hadn’t, she’d be dead by now or at the least, so old she wanted to be dead. And the shower water back on the Unreliable was nice and hot and since they refilled here, it didn’t smell like sulfur at all. Maybe she’d even manage to get all the tangles out of her hair before she fell asleep and fucked it up again. Might as well enjoy what pleasures she got, instead of wasting her time wishing for a better past.

Loathe as she was to do it, Ryn turned off the water and grabbed her towel. She scrubbed off the water the best she could with the threadbare thing. She bet those assholes in the city had nice fluffy towels. And enough food. And...shit that wasn’t something she was ready to deal with yet. One thing at a time.

She threw on some clean panties and flung an old t-shirt over her head, one that belonged to Alex Hawthorne. It used to be white, she could tell, but it was a dingy grey now and stretched out around the collar. Long enough to cover her ass, at least when she didn’t move too much. Comfy though and better than flopping about naked and cold.

Ryn glanced out the window at the Groundbreaker as they orbited around Terra 2 in sync. Pragmatism said she should have saved the fuel. But Parvati was so shaken by what they found that Ryn wanted to give her the support she needed. That support was always Junlei, so off to the Groundbreaker they went. Watching them find their way through all this gave Ryn hope. Even if shit was falling to pieces, there were still things worth fighting for.

Someone knocked at the door. For a moment Ryn considered finding pants. But SAM had absconded with whatever didn’t have some sort of armor plating so whoever it was would have to deal. Chances were it was Ellie or Nyoka wanting her to come on to the Groundbreaker for drinks. She wasn’t ready to tell anyone who wasn’t there what she found on the Chairman’s terminal. And that was a secret she wouldn't be able to keep with a drink in her belly. She wasn't going to risk it.

She hit the lever and the door slid open.

“Listen, I’m not going to….” She looked up before she finished her sentence and stopped dead. “Max.”

He’d already taken a half step back. “I’m sorry for bothering you, I can-” That’s when he noticed her clothes, or lack thereof. His eyes flicked back up to her face. “I can come back later.”

Had this happened yesterday instead of drunken shenanigans, Ryn would have blushed until her skin peeled off. But after today, she was three heartbeats from asking for a half-naked hug and not feeling bad about it for a second.

“No, no need,” she said, stepping back and gesturing to him to come in, lack of pants and all. “Unless you’re here to pester me to head to the Groundbreaker for drinks, because I’m not up for that on a number of levels.”

Max hesitated for a moment before he nodded and came in. Ryn clicked the door closed behind him. She crossed to her desk and parked her ass on the corner, crossing her feet at the ankles.

“I thought we could talk, now that the rest of the crew is off having shore leave,” Max said, coming to stand an arm’s length from her. “Assuming you are up to it, and remember what happened last night.”

“Yikes, yeah,” Ryn admitted. “Sorry about-” She made a noncommittal hand gesture, but only from the elbows down. The last thing her pride needed right now was an accidental panty shot. “-all that. Not my finest moment.”

“Ah.” Max looked apologetic, even though that made no sense. She was the one who acted like an asshole. “I suspected as much. Completely understandable, of course. You’ve been through a lot and I’m sure whatever you expected once you came out of stasis, this wasn’t it.”

“That’s for sure,” she said before she put all his words together. “Wait. What part is understandable?”

“Being lonely,” he said. His expression was conflicted; somehow both peaceful and disappointed at once. “And a bit lost. Then add alcohol and one is bound to do say things they don’t mean.”

Ryn cocked her head. “I said some things with liquid courage I might not have otherwise. And definitely said them without any class,” she admitted. “But I didn’t say anything I didn’t mean.”

Max’s eyebrows went up before he got control of his face again. He rearranged it back into a neutral expression. Ryn couldn’t help but smirk. He could find all the peace he wanted, but it didn’t change who he was, inability to fucking read French and all. He opened his mouth and then closed it again, unable to reply.

That clinched it. He came here on purpose and if he wasn’t interested, now would be the perfect time to leave. But he was standing there looking at her with his normal decisiveness failing him.

“Look, you were there today,” she said. “Things look pretty bad for Halcyon. But we aren’t dead yet.” She smiled as best she could, all things considered. “Who knows, maybe we can make things better. But if I’ve learned anything new since I woke up besides _ everything _-” She chuckled and leaned forward a little. “It’s that we might be dead any minute. I’m done wasting time, if you are. I mean, assuming that’s a thing Vicars do.”

Max laughed quietly. “Even if I still believed in the Plan, none of what I’ve ever believed has those strange customs of the old Earth religions I’ve read about. ” He tucked a non-existent piece of hair behind his ear. “I know you remember Earth, but I’ve never been there. I don’t have any of those hang ups, or at least no one has ever mentioned it. I’ve had a reasonable amount of enjoyable physical pleasure, both in and out of prison.”

Ryn’s face made a question without thinking.

“I’ve never been concerned about details like gender, if that’s what you’re asking.” He frowned. “I hope that’s not another Earth hang-up, or a problem for you.”

“No,” she answered as quickly as she could gather her wits out of her panties. “No problem at all.”

“There is perhaps one,” he said.

“One problem?”

Max nodded and took an unconscious step towards her. “While I have no problems with sex for the sake of itself, I’m-” He sighed. “You’ve done more for me than anyone ever has. I don’t know that I can help you with this, if that’s all it is. I might-I don’t think it would be fair. To me.” When Ryn couldn’t find the words to respond, he continued, over-explaining, as he loved to do. “Certainly I’m not saying I want something rash like a...like a marriage contract. But I ah-” He cleared his throat. “You’ve earned more than my respect.”

Ryn smiled, she felt her cheeks flush. “So this problem you’re seeing is that you like me.”

“Little more than that.”

She got to her feet. “I’m not seeing the problem.”

“Only if it’s not reciprocated.” He took a half step closer. She could smell him, soap and clean water and sun warmed grass that reminded her of home.

“_Max _.” She put all the meaning she could into his name. Ryn was good with words, but her heart was beating so fast it was hard to think of any. She could only hope he heard the ones she didn’t say.

A smile lit up his face. He reached out and put his hand on her cheek. They both moved closer until there was hardly a breath of air between them.

“_Ryn _,” he said. Max apparently had better control of his faculties than she did. “I love you.”

Ryn wanted to reply but the best answer she had was to slide forward into his arms and kiss him. His hands felt warm again her chilled skin and through the faded cotton of the former Captain’s shirt. His lips were soft, his face smooth and fresh shaved. He felt warm and solid and real in a way almost nothing else had since she’d crashed into Terra 2.

“I love you too, Max,” she said, taking his face between her hands. “But I swear to the Law, if we both aren’t naked in the next two minutes, I am going to lose my mind.”

He laughed, deep and throaty and pleased as a cystypig in shit. “I think that can be arranged.”


	3. Violent Enthusiasm

Max’s hands were warm and soft on her skin as they slipped up underneath the hem of her ragged t-shirt. His fingers were on her ribs, thumbs curved under the edges of her breasts. His forehead was still resting against hers. His breathing was shallow and fast.

Ryn pressed her body against his. It felt like her skin and her blood were warm for the first time since she’d woken up from stasis. The world felt real, instead of some weird nebulous nightmare.

Max leaned in against her. She moved with him, tilting her head back as he rubbed the soft, fresh shaved edge of his jaw along her neck. Delicate kisses until his lips were against the ridge of her collarbone. Ryn’s fingers dug into his shoulders as his lips moved towards the hollow at the base of her throat. He made a soft, appreciative sound. His grip tightened on her rib cage.

He moved away long enough to help pull her shirt up and off over her head. Ryn wasn’t sure how he was managing to keep his balance. He crouched down again, kissing her exposed skin, still damp from the shower. Ryn leaned back on her palms when his mouth moved down past her sternum to the soft curve of her belly. Max rested his cheek against her thigh and looked up at her.

Ryn shifted her weight to one hip so she could reach out and touch his face. She ran the tips of her fingers through the short cropped hair behind his ear. He closed his eyes and sighed, his head almost imperceptibly leaning into her touch. He opened his eyes, slow and languid.

In Ryn’s experience, when most men tried to give her bedroom eyes, they looked ridiculous. What those looks were missing was the bold adoration she saw when she looked at Max. Lust was easy to come by; this was something better. That’s what was always missing before.

She smiled at him and he kissed the soft skin on her inner thigh in reply. He looked back at her again, this time with a wordless question. Ryn was out of words too, so she nodded instead of spoke. There was a sparkle in his eye before he took a deep breath in through his nose. She felt his fingers, now curled around the meat of her hips, tighten as he caught her scent. Without any hesitation, he pressed his face between her legs. She still had on her only marginally presentable panties, but he seemed oblivious to how ragged they were.

She could feel his breath through them, his mouth. Ryn closed her eyes. She focused on him touching her, on the perks of lovers that knew what the hell they were doing. His fingers with somehow always clean and trimmed nails slipped inside the old elastic and into her with practiced care.

Max was still completely dressed and she hadn’t even touched him. Yet, but in about thirty seconds, she was going to have a sloppy orgasm all over his face and her desk if he kept this up. He was not messing around.

The flat of his tongue pressed hard against her clit. Ryn’s thighs shivered and she tried not to clamp them against his head. It was hard to keep herself still but Max’s left arm wrapped around her hips, steadying her. Like he always did; keeping her from losing her balance.

Once her legs stopped shivering, Max lifted his head to look up her. He looked pretty damn smug. Ryn smiled. He’d earned it.

“How’d I do with helping you with your feelings?” Max licked his lips.

“I didn’t know it was over.”

“Oh, it’s not.”

“I’ll have to save my review until after the credits.”

Max got to his feet, slightly less graceful than when he’d knelt down in the first place. Ryn’s smile went crooked at the expression on his face. He frowned. It looked as if he was going to say something. Before his brain got in the way, Ryn put her hand on his arm and pulled him close again. She kissed him, enjoying the musky scent of herself on his skin.

Whatever thought had rattled through his head was forgotten. He pulled her closer, tucking his hands under her thighs. It seemed for a moment like he was going to try to pick her up, but she slid herself forward until her feet hit the floor. She was as big as he was, albeit shorter. Considering the food in Halcyon, it was a wonder any of them were more than skin and bones. Ryn hadn’t been out of stasis long, but she could already feel the impact, even if her hips didn’t show it. 

Old Earth baggage aside, there was no point in letting Max pull a muscle to be chivalrous. He was gonna need all his strength to keep up with her anyway. Ryn resisted the urge to smirk.

She pulled away from him and took in his glassy eyes and flushed lips. It was nearly more than she could stand but she kept it together as best she could. She reached out and unfastened the top button on his blue vestments. She had half an invasive thought about him being a priest, but she let it go. The second button came undone easier. The third button revealed a soft dusting of hair on his chest and Ryn was overcome by a wave of fierce arousal. She figured the desk orgasm might give her more patience, but no such luck.

Three buttons was enough to get the thing off over his head. Good enough.

Once it was off, it was clear why those vestments had the long flaps. Those pants were skin tight and left absolutely nothing to the imagination. The view was _ grand. _

Ryn resisted the urge to make a smug comment and tugged Max close with her fingers in the waistband. She kissed him and he kissed her back hard, making sure to leave enough room for her fingers to work. She unfastened the buttons and the zipper to slip her hand inside. She slid her palm along the length of his erection before wrapping her fingers around him. He shuddered and dropped his head on her shoulder. She kissed the side of his neck as she stroked him. 

She figured it was only fair she return his earlier favor.

She wriggled out of his arms to kneel down in front of him. She got his pants down over his hips before he got himself together enough to say something.

“_Ryn_.” There was a lot of information in the way he said her name; desire, affection but a healthy hint of trepidation. 

“_Max, _ ” she said, trying to do the same but with confidence instead. He smiled at her but she could almost hear the gears turning in his head. He might have had a spiritual experience, but he was still _ Max _.

Once she felt him relax, melt into the moment again, she leaned forward and took him into her mouth. She focused on what she could. There were small fits of coherent thoughts overlaying the sensations; the taste of his skin, the feel of his pulse against her lips, the sounds he made as she moved. She took her cues from him and the way his muscles trembled under her hand on his thigh. He shuddered, groaned and grabbed her shoulders. 

“Wait.” He took a hard breath and exhaled between his teeth. She stopped, looked up at him. “Come here.”

She let him pull her to her feet and kiss her. “You all right?” she asked.

“Yes,” he chuckled. “But this was about to be over before it got started.”

“I suppose Edgewater was not the best place to let off steam; been awhile?”

“That’s an understatement.”

Ryn smiled. “It’s been-” She mimed checking a watch she wasn’t wearing. “-70 years, give or take.”

They both laughed. It felt as good as anything else did.

“Well,” she continued. “Shall we?” She pushed him back toward her bunk. He shuffled a bit, pants around his ankles, bunched up around his boots. She guided him until he could sit so she could unlace them for him. He’d done it for her when she was too drunk to even be conscious, after all. Unlike him, she didn’t set them next to the bed and tuck in the laces. She flung them across the room one at a time, followed by his pants that got hooked on the edge of her desk chair.

When she met him, that would have driven him crazy, but he didn’t seem to care much at the moment. She wasn’t sure if it was the newness or if he was more submissive than he let on, but he let her shift him into her bunk on his back without any complaint.

Shimmying out of her damp panties, she climbed into the bunk on top of him. Max reached a hand up around her neck and pulled her closer to kiss her again. She’d kissed her share in the day, but this felt effortless. It was less a display of technique, less like trying to impress and instead only pleasure. Maybe it was a side effect of being all enlightened or maybe Max was just a firecracker at sex, but it hardly mattered. All Ryn knew was that she wanted him inside her _ right fucking now _.

She reached down and slipped her fingers under his cock, watching his face very carefully as she did. She couldn’t help but smile at him as she took in the deep line between his eyebrows and the twitch of muscle in his jaw. She wasn’t used to this level of enthusiasm, but she had no complaints. Especially not when she got him adjusted right and shifted her hips. The head of his cock slipped inside her.

Max took half a breath and held it as she moved, rolled her hips until he was completely inside of her. She braced herself on her hands next to his head but didn’t move. His hands were on her hips again, holding on tight. Neither of them moved at all for a few breaths. 

“I spent more time than I ought to admit, wondering how this would feel,” Max said, his voice a husky whisper. “But it’s so much better now that I’m actually here.” He swallowed hard and lifted one hand from her hip and ran it up her back to cup her head in his hand. He pulled her close to kiss her again. He murmured against her mouth. “I love you.” He took a breath. “And I am going to fuck you until you can’t walk.”

_Okay, so maybe not submissive after all. _ Ryn started to chuckle but then Max had her flipped on her back and one of her knees over his shoulder before that laugh had a chance to escape. She clearly didn’t need to worry he wouldn’t have been able to carry her to the bed.

He started slow, but not for long. If she hadn’t been ready, this might have been more than she could handle. But he had her in such a state, she urged him on instead. One second he was this perfectly composed picture of placidity and the next a wild man who said _ fuck _ and hit people in the face with a tossball stick.

Ryn wrapped her leg around him and tried to hold on. She took her cues from what she learned hallucinating with Max; no plan, only experience. His skin was damp from sweat. So was hers. Anyone outside the door to her cabin, _ hell_, anyone on the ship at all would be able to hear what was going on in here.

After how hard she came while on the desk, she wasn’t sure she would again, but she was dangerously close already. She felt the muscles in Max’s back clench and sent a silent prayer to whatever chaos gods might be out there. He adjusted in response to the sounds she was making. She dug her fingernails into his back. That was all it took to push her over the edge.

They might have heard her scream on the Groundbreaker.

It was too much for Max, too. He pulled out, his cock sliding into the slick skin where he had her thigh bent up tight against her belly. He came, warm semen over the edge of her ribs and onto the sheets.

He made like he was going to move out of the way, but she grabbed him and pulled him down on top of her. Ryn cradled Max against her, his head tucked up under her chin. She kissed his sweaty hair, enjoying how she finally managed to make him disheveled. If she could have purred like a cat, she would have.

They laid together like that for a while. They drifted in that haze of orgasm bliss, breath and heartbeats slowing back to a normal rhythm. Ryn felt herself near the edge of sleep when Max spoke.

“Now is probably too late to ask, but I have to know.”

“What’s that?”

He turned his head to look up at her. “I should have asked before, but...how old are you?”

“Oh Law,” Ryn laughed. “Older than you, anyway.”

He gave her a look. “_Not _ including the 70 years on the Hope, Ryn.”

She rolled her eyes. “Fine, not including those-” She paused. “Old enough, okay? What does it matter?”

“I guess...it doesn’t? I wanted to know how badly I’ve robbed the cradle. I can be proud and feel terrible all at once.”

Ryn laughed again. “Look, once a girl is over 100, _ including stasis or whatever, _it doesn’t count.”

“Fair enough.” He snuggled his head down and kissed to top of her breast. “I still want to know.”

“Fuck you Max.”

He snorted. “Laws, woman, give me a few minutes, will you?”

They both laughed again, ridiculously hard considering all the circumstances. Ryn laughed until there were tears in her eyes and her stomach hurt.

This was about as good as Halcyon was going to get.


End file.
